This relates to devices and methods for interfacing with a data network.
In the Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) environment the service provider (which most often is also the network provider) allocates network facilities to users based on the service to which the users subscribe, and some of those allocated facilities are dedicated to the subscriber (e.g., the physical line from the subscriber's house). Users who want a greater bandwidth have facilities allocated to them that provide the greater bandwidth and, correspondingly, pay more for the service. The implicit agreement is that the user can take advantage of the full subscribed bandwidth (or other enhanced service features) at any time, sporadically or continuously.
The subscriptions paradigm in cellular telephony is now substantially the same as in POTS. That is, subscribers are charged a monthly rate that is a function of the network features and capabilities that the subscribers might use. One difference, however, is that the features and capabilities that a subscriber of a cellular device may enjoy are typically very closely associated with the features and capabilities that the cellular device provides. Consequently, cellular service providers often offer subscription packages that are tied to the type of cellular device that the subscriber purchases with a subscription. Another difference is that the cellular devices are designed to the service provider's specification.
In a closely parallel field, computers communicate across a data network, e.g., the Internet, where communication takes place in a connectionless manner through addressed packets. A packet comprises header fields that are followed by an information field. The header fields follow a predetermined arrangement, which allows operation in accordance with prescribed protocols; for example, the Internet Protocol (IP) suite. The TCP and UDP protocols in the transport layer of the Internet Protocol suite (but also other protocols) use a numerical identifier for the data structures of the endpoints for host-to-host communications. This identifier is known as the port number. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is responsible for maintaining the official assignments of port numbers for specific uses.
In a typical arrangement, a computer is connected to a modem which, through a coax cable, optical fiber, or phone lines, is connected to an Internet Service Provider (ISP), and from the ISP to the data network. The prevailing data network nowadays is the Internet. A router that is interposed between the computer and the modem allows a plurality of computers to connect to the router, to inter-communicate, and through the modem to connect to the Internet. Initially, the connection of the computers to the router was through physical wires, forming a wired local area network LAN, but more recently the routers have incorporated wireless access points (APs), allowing the LANs to be wireless. Consequently, there are many locations throughout the world where, for a small charge or for free, computers can connect to the Internet through an AP and a router. These are often referred to as hot spots.
More recently, the same connectivity to the internet has been achieved in cell phones. That is, via a base station and an ISP cell phones can connect to the Internet. With the development of earpiece and microphone connectivity to the cell phone via the Bluetooth protocol, an even more recent development is software that is installed in the cell phone and which implements an AP, router and network address translation (NAT) functions (collectively herein, “soft AP”). This software creates a hot spot that accompanies the cell phone.
Use of the soft AP presents a problem to the service provider in that a cell phone that was expected to present a certain load on the link from the cell phone to the base station, and a certain load on the network, is now in position to load the aforementioned link and network much more heavily. That, in turn, affects what the network provider must do in order to assure that the expected level of service is still available to users, and it also nullifies the assumptions on which service subscriptions fees are based. Consequently, it is important for the service provider to know how much usage takes place of the LAN created by the soft AP (W2LAN). To that end, it is desirable to provide a scheme by which data traffic that uses a shared device can be identified and controlled, if desired.